Plastic Bag with EZ Open Notches

ABSTRACT

An easily openable plastic bag is provided. The bag comprises a notch on its front panel along the edge of the bag’s mouth opening along with a non-adjacent notch on its back panel. This allows the user to easily separate the front and back panels by placing a finger and thumb on portion of the bag directly underneath each notch and then pulling in an outward direction.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Plastic bags that are used by consumers to hold things like: groceries,produce and even dog poop (among other things), are often difficult toopen. In many cases the bags come on rolls or are presented to consumersin compressed stacks of bags. When removed from the roll or from a stackof bags, the front and rear sides of a bag’s mouth are frequently stucktogether, making it difficult for consumers to open them. The mostcommon approach to opening the bags is for users to wet their fingers byspitting on them and then rub their spit moistened fingers on oppositesides of the bag to create enough friction to separate the bag’s mouthopening. The global pandemic has made people aware of how easily virusesare spread through saliva and so a more hygienic solution is needed.

Previous attempts to make plastic bags easier to open have oftenrequired additional bag dispensing hardware to be installed. Forexample, in U.S. Pat. 10,486,862 Bag Dispenser for Facilitating BagOpening, a hardware device needs to be installed to assist users to opentheir plastic grocery bags. This approach is expensive and not practicalfor bags that need to be dispensed when consumers are not in a fixedlocation, as in the case when consumers need to open dog poop bags whileout for a walk.

Another approach has involved making major structural changes to thedesign of the plastic bag itself, which involves creating expensive newtooling to be able manufacture the bags as represented by U.S. Pat.4,911,560 Easy Open Bag. This approach would add substantial costs tothe production of the bag.

In some cases, as in patent application US20080105679A the approach tomaking it easier to open plastic bags was to have the mouth of the bagcut in a swirling pattern and then have the user pull on a flapextending out from the mouth of the bag. The drawback to this solutionis that the curls would make it much difficult to separate bags that aredispensed on continuous rolls, like dog poop bags and grocery storeproduce bags among others. The many curves on the perforated portion ofthe bag that consumers need to pull apart would likely cause tearsrather than ripping neatly along a straight edge. Another issue withthis approach is that even if the bag is successfully torn off the roll,the user now has to pull on a flap extending from the main body of thebag. Depending on the force used, this could lead to the flap being torncompletely loose from the bag.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is specifically concerned with plastic bags, whichincorporate means, as an integral part of the individual bags, forfacilitating the opening of the mouths of the bags.

More specifically, the invention proposes formation of a plastic bagwith a notch cut out along on the mouth of the bag on the front side anda second notch cut out along the mouth of the bag on the opposing side,in such a way that at least a portion of each notch does not overlapwith the opposing notch.

The notches allow a user to grasp the front and rear side of the bag atthe same time and then pull in an outward direction to cause the mouthof the bag to open.

When pulling, the user will be grasping both the front and rear sides ofthe bag which are more structurally sound than flaps, tags, orextensions.

Adapting current tooling to incorporate these notches will be relativelysimple for manufacturers, since it does not require adding any extramaterial to the bags.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows an open bag with a notch cut out from the front side of thebag and a second notch cut out from the rear side of the bag.

FIG. 2 shows a closed bag with a notch cut out from the front side ofthe bag and a second notch cut out from the rear side of the bag.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring now more specifically to the drawings, FIG. 1 . Illustrates inone embodiment how notches designed to facilitate bag opening, can beadded to bags that have handles.

One notch (labeled 102 in the drawing) is cut out from the rear side ofthe bag. This cutout allows the user to touch and grasp only the frontside of the closed bag.

The notch, labeled 103 in the drawing, is cut out from the front side ofthe bag. This cutout allows the user to touch and grasp only the rearside of the closed bag.

FIG. 2 Illustrates in one embodiment how notches can also be added tobags that do not have handles. These bags include, but are not limitedto: produce bags found in grocery stores, garbage bags, dog poop bags,specimen bags, among others.

The notches, labeled 203 and 204 in the drawing, in this embodiment, aredepicted as being elliptical in shape. In other embodiments the notchescan come in different shapes.

The notches, labeled 203 and 204 in the drawing, in this embodiment arewidely spaced apart from each other. In other embodiments the notchescan be closer together or further apart, as long as the two notches donot completely overlap each other.

When the user pulls the portion of the bag behind notch 203 and theportion of the bag behind notch 204 in an outward direction, the mouthof the bag will be opened.

1. A plastic bag that is made easy to open, comprising: a notch on frontside of the bag placed along the bag’s mouth, and a notch on rear sideof the bag placed along the bag’s mouth, with the notches placed in suchas way that the front and back notches do not completely overlap witheach other.